notes from brainstorming:

Suggested name: "JBoss Central" (or JBoss Tools Central | JBoss Developer Studio Central dependent on the context)

There should be a flag for Show on startup which should be easy to toggle on/off to not be annoying.
And thus also have a preference for this in global preferences.

If we could find a layout (maybe simply tabs inside a form editor?) that would allow us to add sections like "Getting Started", "News", "Software/Update" etc. based on what makes sense in JBoss Tools and or JBDS that would be good.

News:
The news section should support aggregation from multiple RSS feeds, but present them in one "feed".
The news section should be configurable on product level so there can be different feeds dependent on bundle/product. For starters an active feed to use could be http://planet.jboss.org/view/all - but we probably want something more filtered in final version.

The news section should show a clickable header for the news item and a small text snippet/teaser for the content. (I would consider also putting in a relative time/date, i.e. "JBoss Tools SuperMan released" (2 days ago)) to get a feel of how new/old news items are.

Getting Started:
Should give you direct links to main New project wizards (i.e. New Dynamic Web Project, or New CDI Project which might just be New Dynamic Web Project being prefilled with the proper facet settings).

Access to project examples/tutorials and possibly also "New Server", "Runtime Detection setup" ?

Software/update (this might only just be for JBDS since we can't control/test it consistently in eclipse world).

If in jboss tools - maybe just easy access to MarketPlace ?

Search box where you can type in the feature/plugin you want to find (should search in both the id's and human text to be findable).

A list being filtered by the search box showing the matching (or just all) possible updates/installations that are available.

Should be able to distinguish between features we've provided, what is provided by others and their license. (how much of this is available in p2 metadata?)

btw. one thing that always annoyed me about eclipse update site UI and Marketplace is that if I've found something to install, put a checkbox in and then start searching again for something new it forgets the previous selection.

I was wondering if we could make it so when you choose something in the main list it goes to a "About to be updated/installed" section and then if I search again and click a new one it will simply add to that list instead of clear it.

I have created the following features:

1) the JBoss Central editor and action (you can open it using Help>JBoss Central)

2) the Documentation and Create Projects section

3) the News section

4) the Software/Update page

• uses the Mylyn Connector Discovery mechanism
• the discovery directory file is located in https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/discovery/directory-3.3.0.xml
• the discovery directory includes a plugin (https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/discovery/org.jboss.tools.central.discovery_3.3.0.jar) and three features (m2e, eGit and testNG)

5) an extension point and engine to download and install a JBT runtime (Seam, AS, EAP ...). I have created the "Download and Install JBoss AS 7.0.1" action in the Getting started page as an example.
The action downloads the JBoss AS archive from the sourceforge site (a mirror is automatically chosen) and installs the JBoss AS server using the Runtime detection plugin.
We could add the Download button to the Runtime Detection preferences page.
That would enable a user to easily install required plugins and runtimes when running tutorials/project examples.

TODO

• add tutorials (project examples). They could be based on the existing project examples having the welcome element or could be simple cheatsheets.
• add the Search control
• show JBoss Central when the user updates some plugin

Your suggestions, design items (icons, images ...) are very welcome.

The source code has been committed to the trunk/central.

https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/org.jboss.tools.central.update is the update site. The changes introduced by JBIDE-9702 are required.

The attached screenshots are showing the News section and the Software/Update page.

Now JBoss Central includes the project examples section (the jbcentral1.png screenshot).
Project examples are being added using the org.jboss.tools.central.tutorials extension point.
The org.jboss.tools.central plugin can serve as an example.

If a project example has some unsatisfied requirements (a WTP Runtime, Seam Runtime, an Eclipse plugin), a warning icon will be shown (Seam 2 tutorials, for instance, require JBoss AS 4.2 and Seam 2.0)
When a user clicks some project example, he gets a dialog as shown in the jbcentral2.png screenshot.
The user can set JBoss Runtimes using the JBoss Runtime Detection (the Install button) or download and install runtimes using the Download and Install... button. The Download and Install action is performed by the org.jboss.tools.runtime.core.downloadJBossRuntimes extension point. I have defined several runtimes that can be downloaded to the o.j.t.runtime.core plugin.
There is a new property - the downloadId property that can be used to define the id of the extension point with which runtimes are being downloaded and installed. The registration2, messages, todo and.or numberguess examples in the https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/trunk/download.jboss.org/jbosstools/examples/project-examples-community-3.1.xml can be used as examples how to define this property.
It is also possible to define an automatic download of the required plugins. See jbcentral3.png (PDE Runtime is started without m2e; the JBoss AS 7 doesn't exist).
The user can download required Eclipse feature(s) automatically (m2e, m2eclipse-wtp and JBoss Maven Tools).
This functionality is defined as follows:

• create the org.eclipse.mylyn.discovery.core.connectorDiscovery ext. point for a feature you want to download. See the org.jboss.tools.central.discovery plugin
• add the connectorsIds property to the plugin fix within a project example. See the JBoss AS 7 Quickstart examples in https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/trunk/download.jboss.org/jbosstools/examples/project-examples-maven-3.3.xml

The user can start a project example when there are some unsatisfied requirements.

TODO

• add cheatsheets to the JBoss AS 7 quickstarts examples
• add the Search control
• show JBoss Central when the user updates some plugin
• add the download action to the runtime plugin
• implement examples/tutorials that call a simple cheatsheet or a html page
• define some other project examples to be added to JBoss Central
• add some of the introduced functionalities to the Project Examples wizard (mainly to the Requirements Details dialog)

Not sure if we need to add the JBoss Central action to the Eclipse main toolbar. It is only in the Help menu for now.

The changes have been committed to the trunk. I have added the JBoss central feature to the https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/org.jboss.tools.central.update update site.

The following plugins have been changed:

• org.jboss.tools.central
• org.jboss.tools.central.discovery (it doesn't need to be installed; currently, it is in the https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/discovery/org.jboss.tools.central.discovery_3.3.0.jar)
  We probably need a better location for this plugin (http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/examples/org.jboss.tools.central.discovery_3.3.0.jar, for instance) as well as for the discovery file that is currently placed in the https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/discovery/directory-3.3.0.xml file.
• org.jboss.tools.project.examples
• org.jboss.tools.runtime.core
• org.jboss.tools.runtime.ui

looking good, ned to try it out but based on screenshots alone my first question is: what is the difference between "Install" and "Download and install" ?

The Install button calls the JBoss Runtime Detection preferences page and enables the user to install/setup JBoss WTP/Seam runtimes. This action would be used if there are downloaded runtimes in the file system.
The Download and Install button will download the WTP/Seam Runtime from the internet and install/setup it using the Runtime Detection API. The user would use this action the first time when starting JBT and doesn't have any required server/runtime in the file system.

Currently http://planet.jboss.org/xml/all?type=atom contains an invalid xml. JBoss Central doesn't show any news because the com.sun.syndication plugin can't read such xml.

The exception message is the following:

"Invalid XML: Error on line 216: The element type "content" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "</content>"

The entry with the "When Infinispan meets CDI" subject is placed on the line 216.

I want to make sure that all "news" and/or "events" announcements are curated. Setup a small committee who determines what is published through this channel.

Burr, finding the committee is not the hard part, the hard part is how to get a curated channel created without requiring a lot of manual labor

Lets put this discussion at https://issues.jboss.org/browse/JBIDE-9653 which is concerning this.

For "News" - I would like this split
First section would be "News" and be from a special news/announcements jboss.org hosted blog.
Second section would be "Blogs" and be from http://community.jboss.org/blogs/

The "News" should also include the first 140 characters of the post and the posting date/author.

"Create Project" should be above "Project Examples".

> "Create Project" should be above "Project Examples".

Done. (jbcentral6.png)

> The "News" should also include the first 140 characters of the post and the posting date/author.

The posting date/author is already shown as well as a tooltip containing the complete post description. Will add the first 140 characters of the post.

> For "News" - I would like this split
> First section would be "News" and be from a special news/announcements jboss.org hosted blog.
> Second section would be "Blogs" and be from http://community.jboss.org/blogs/

Currently I am using the http://planet.jboss.org/xml/all?type=atom url and parsing it using the com.sun.syndication plugin (the Rome library)
What urls do we need to use to parse the "News" and "Blogs" sections?

I have added the following features:

• the Search control with a menu and Content Assist

• showing JBoss Central when the user updates some plugin
• created pom.xml files so that the central component can be added to the build

Now you can install/update the JBoss Tools trunk (http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/updates/nightly/trunk/) and install the JBoss Central feature using the https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/org.jboss.tools.central.update update site.

> The "News" should also include the first 140 characters of the post and the posting date/author.

Done.

Max,

I have fixed the issues you described.
The examples component has also been changed.

Nick,

The org.jboss.tools.central.discovery plugin doesn't need to be included in the o.j.t.central.feature feature. This plugin and the https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/discovery/directory-3.3.0.xml file have to be placed on an external location and can be changed without changing the JBT source code. See https://issues.jboss.org/browse/JBIDE-9368?focusedCommentId=12629235&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-12629235
The Mylyn engine will discover the features/connectors included in this plugin.
We also have to decide what features/connectors will be available for JBT and JBDS.
I have removed this plugin from the o.j.t.central.feature feature

so... where would this go? Something like http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/updates/indigo/discovery/ ? http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/discovery/indigo/ ? Or are we versioning these files so that there'll be a 3.3.0, 3.3.1, etc? How will users discover the newer versions? Will we replace older (3.3.0) with newer (3.3.1) when the update's available?

Does the plugin have to be on its own update site somewhere, or does it just sit next to the directory.xml file, which points at it so that Mylyn/p2 can install it?

ive just updated and now we have a hardcoded string in our plugin to nightly trunk + the discovery plugin is again added to the feature...why is that ? This won't work across any milestones/trunk/release builds.

Well, previously the hard-coded string was to https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/discovery/directory-3.3.0.xml – IMHO this is at least a better solution because we can generate the resulting file and have it point at the latest discovery plugin, and because we won't end up forgetting to fix this and have people resolving against Sneja's workspace in SVN.

If having the plugin in the same feature is BAD, I can produce a new feature to wrap it so it can be published but NOT installed at the same time.

> ive just updated and now we have a hardcoded string in our plugin to nightly trunk + the discovery plugin is again added to the feature...why is that ? This won't work across any milestones/trunk/release builds.

If you are talking about the mylyn discovery file (https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools/workspace/snjeza/discovery/directory-3.3.0.xml), we could add an Eclipse or a system preference. Mylyn uses the mylyn.discovery.directory system preference (http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn/discovery/directory-3.6.xml by default).
I don't know why Nick has added the org.jboss.tools.central.discovery plugin to o.j.t.central.feature feature. I have removed it.

I have understood that we, for now, have to remove/comment the Software/Update page.

> [10:38:41 PM] Max Rydahl Andersen says: remove the extension updates stuff for M4 release since it contains bogus data and we won't have the infrastructure in place - we should though find out with nick/denis how that discovery site gets created/maintained.

> If having the plugin in the same feature is BAD, I can produce a new feature to wrap it so it can be published but NOT installed at the same time.

Nick,
We don't need any feature for this plugin. It needs to be built and placed to some location (http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/examples/org.jboss.tools.central.discovery_3.3.0.jar, for instance)

Max,

> [10/17/2011 11:49:53 PM] Max Rydahl Andersen says: why is project examples and docs collapsed by default ?

Now those sections are expanded. Do examples categories need to be expanded too?

> [10/17/2011 11:50:10 PM] Max Rydahl Andersen says: and the layout of news/blogs seem to not scale with the available space
> [10/17/2011 11:51:12 PM] Max Rydahl Andersen says: only if I make it full screen do they show up as 50/50

There are two containers within a forms editor page:
ScrolledComposite IManagedForm.getForm()
Composite IManagedForm.getForm().getBody()

The sections are resized based on IManagedForm.getForm().getBody(). If the editor isn't maximized, the scrollbars would look as in the screenshot below.

They are properly shown on Windows XP and Linux. I suppose that there is a problem with Mac because no one scrollbar appears.

Try the attached patch (mac.patch).

The patch resizes a section based on IManagedForm.getForm() on Mac OS.
When I use the above IManagedForm.getForm() on Windows and Linux, I see a large blank space in the news/blogs container and only 1-2 entries are visible.

What version of Mac and Eclipse (Carbon or Cocoa) do you use? I have seen you have some more issues on Mac (JBIDE-9756) that are not happening on Linux, Windows and some other Macs.
It is possible that this is an upstream bug.

BTW
Is the issue shown on the https://issues.jboss.org/secure/attachment/12347962/screenshot0.png screenshot fixed now?

The current http://planet.jboss.org/feeds/blogs url contains an invalid entry.

The first entry in the blog is invalid. It contains the "rsquo" entity that is referenced, but not declared.

That's why the Blogs section was empty after refreshing.

I have added an error log for such entries and fixed the issue so that they are shown as in the screenshot.

I have enhanced the fix so that the first entry is shown properly now.

main work on this was done and released with M4 - separate issues to filed for future improvements/fixes.

Closing since M4 is released.

Reopening to set release note status

Since JBoss Central is an entirely new component for JBDS 5, no specific release note is necessary as it will be mentioned in the overview section.

Reclosing now release note status has been set